The gift a father gave to his daughter before he died

If left unchecked a deer population could double in 3-4 years according to some estimates. Facing growing numbers of interactions between deer and people, some cities are turning to local hunters for help.
Brian Powers/The Register

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Lexi Hewitt of Pella learned to hunt from her father Tod and is determined to pass on his legacy.(Photo: Mike Kilen/Des Moines Register)Buy Photo

He took her with him to hunt by age 8. They sat high in deer stands in trees, or chased down squirrels. They watched the sun rise in duck blinds.

“I’d always be at his side,” said Lexi, 18, of Pella.

Her father got so excited when Lexi shot her first turkey 2½ years ago that the family still laughs at the video of it. He was thin and ill by then, sitting in a four-wheeler to run the camera as the 27-pound turkey appeared and she shot.

“You got it!” he yelled.

“His voice was shaking,” said Arica Brinegar, Lexi’s cousin. “You could tell how proud of her he was.”

Tod Hewitt died at age 47 of colon cancer in April 2016. Before he died, Lexi promised her dad she would keep hunting.

She had a tattoo put on her forearm with the date encircled by deer heads and an exact copy of his last signature to her: “Love Dad.”

Lexi Hewitt's tattoo was placed on her forearm after her father died.(Photo: Special to The Register)

All his life he hunted. He shot his first rabbit at age 4.

“He would even get on his four-wheeler as a child and go get ‘coons,” said Tod’s mother Kathy Hewitt, 79, of Monroe.

He brought his passion to his children, taking Lexi to gun safety classes at 12 and telling her how to hunt correctly.

He took her on trips to Cabela’s to look at hunting gear, to the Great Smoky Mountains or Wyoming to bask in the outdoors, or to his favorite spot in southern Iowa near Eldon — a relatives’ acreage where he loved to hunt deer.

That was where Lexi was hunting on Sunday, Dec. 10. The Pella High School senior had yet to get her first buck, the moment every hunter remembers.

“She followed her dad’s footsteps that day,” said Lexi’s mom, Carmen. “He was right there with her.”

Lexi Hewitt poses with her dad Tod Hewitt after he shot one his last bucks before he died.(Photo: Special to The Register)

“I had this feeling,” she said. “We saw four does, so we ran to get in our spots. I was on the furthest hill and stood there for an hour and a half. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the buck.”

It was running, more than 30 yards away, headed into the timber. She lifted her 20-gauge shotgun, closed one eye, and pulled the trigger.

“I’m freaking out. I’m running to the woods,” she said.

There lay a handsome 16-point buck, dead. She screamed and laughed and tears came to her eyes.

She quickly posted this photo on her Facebook page, writing “Got my first buck I’m so excited my dad would be proud of me!”

Lexi Hewitt with her first buck. Her late father, she said, was guiding her that Dec. 10 day.(Photo: Special to The Register)

Deer hunting is a December rite in Iowa.

It’s a very personal experience passed on through families, said Mick Klemesrud of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. “The person doing the teaching often gets more satisfaction than the one who is successful.”

Lexi’s teacher, she knew, was with her that day.

“I felt like my dad brought the deer to me,” she said. “I felt like he was holding my shoulders and talking to me.”

She could hear his voice then, whooping and laughing. You got it!

The rack will be mounted and hung in her bedroom. The family gathered Wednesday to process the meat, Lexi practicing all that her dad taught her about doing it right.

She has another promise to him to keep: Pass on the love of hunting to her own children someday — and to her brother Avery.

“He’s 9 and when he gets older I’m going to teach him to be a hunter,” she said. “Just like my dad taught me.”